Topless lawsuit could linger to 2019 for Ocean City

A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Ocean City's ordinance barring women from going topless is moving forward as millions prepare to descend on Maryland's mega resort this season. The federal civil suit filed in January could linger into 2019 as lawyers argue in U.S. District Court of Maryland. The debate has been a firestorm for officials for the past two years. (Daily Times)

Former Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake files for divorce

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the previous mayor of Baltimore, filed for a divorce from her husband Kent Blake, according to court documents. The couple filed for a divorce in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City on April 10, court records show. The case indicates Rawlings-Blake filed for divorce on the grounds of 12-month separation. (Balt. Sun)

If you are one of the thousands of Anne Arundel residents with CPR training a new phone app can alert you to a nearby heart attack or another cardiac emergency in a public place. The county activated PulsePoint Monday, an app that will notify CPR certified residents who sign up to participate and provide the location of public automated external defibrillators — a portable device that checks the heart rhythm and can send an electric shock to the heart to try to restore a normal rhythm — they can grab on their way. (Capital)

Ocean City ranked a Top 10 hot summer destination choice

On the cusp of another season, Ocean City got another feather in its cap this month when it was named by TripAdvisor as one of the Top 10 hottest destinations for this summer. Ocean City placed sixth on TripAdvisor’s top 10 list of hottest summer vacation destinations released this week. The top 10 list from start to finish includes Mackinac Island, Michigan, Bar Harbor, Block Island, Rhode Island, Lake George, N.Y., West Yellowstone, Mont., Ocean City, Martha’s Vineyard, Anchorage, Alaska, Jackson Hole and Nantucket. (Dispatch)

May 21 // Maryland tops states in decline of prison population, report shows

Maryland has surged to the front of a national trend of states reducing their prison populations, according to a new report by a nonprofit group that tracks criminal justice issues. The Vera Institute of Justice said Friday that Maryland led the nation with a 9.6 percent drop in prison inmates in 2017. That is more than 2 percentage points greater than the decline registered in the second-ranking states, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The decline means 1,916 fewer people are serving sentences in state-run correctional facilities — leaving a prison population of 18,078 at the end of last year. (Balt. Sun)

St. Mary’s Co. community rallying behind plans for oyster restoration

Nearly 60 years ago, the oysters in Maryland’s Breton Bay were so plentiful that you had to be careful where you set foot on the bottom. Chuck Bright, who spent his summers there in those days, learned that the hard way. “I jumped off the pier and sliced my foot on an oyster shell,” said Bright, 68, a dentist who now lives year-round in the waterfront home his father built there in the 1950s. As in so many other places around the Chesapeake Bay, oysters are now scarce in Breton Bay, a short, relatively wide tributary of the Potomac River that zigzags south like a question mark from Leonardtown, MD. (Md. Reporter-Bay Journal)

Silver Spring residents take to the streets to demand safer roads

It’s a universal complaint in residential areas — people hate how fast and how frequently cars speed by their homes. But one neighborhood in Montgomery County has found what even their local county councilman calls an “unusually effective” way to bring about change. On an average day, about 4,000 cars use a one-mile stretch of Dale Drive between Route 29 and Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, Maryland. But if there’s anything tying up traffic even more so than usual on either one of those roads, that number goes way up. (WTOP)

Annapolis, Anne Arundel County legislators propose plastic foam ban

Annapolis and Anne Arundel County could become a no-foam zone. Annapolis Alderman Rob Savidge and county Councilman Chris Trumbauer, both Democrats, took aim at plastic foam food service items this month in legislation seeking to ban their use in local restaurants and businesses. Their efforts come after Maryland legislators failed to pass a similar ban statewide, but the idea has seen far more success in Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. The councilmen are hoping to see fewer littered foam cups and containers in the waterways, where they can breakdown and harm aquatic life. (Capital)